18 March 2022: From the General Secretary's desk
Response to the Acting Federal Education Minister.
We have been out in schools working with members and signing up new educators and preservice teachers, welcoming their choice to be part of our great Union and celebrating their choice to be part of our great profession.
We are proud to be state school teachers and leaders, and reject Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert’s assertion that they are “duds”.
It’s a typical bait and switch move from a government that has failed to fund schools to the level needed to meet the needs of every school and every child.
Things the Minister has missed.
- State schools are great schools - they take children from every socioeconomic level and of every ability and develop education programs to meet the needs of these students
- State school teachers and leaders work hard and make a difference for the children they teach. Every. Single. Day.
- Our profession should be celebrated and not used as a political football. It is easier for the federal government to blame teachers and school leaders than to accept responsibility for its own failure to resource schools properly. Reviewing the curriculum should be about listening to the profession and should produce a curriculum for all Australians. But it seems that the Acting Minister is more interested in recluttering the curriculum by introducing his own standards and Christian ethos into a curriculum that is meant to be decluttered and secular. Unfortunately, such ill-advised statements are what you get when you remove the teaching profession’s voice from education policy.
After an already unusual start to the year, statements such as these by the Acting Education Minister are the last thing that state school teachers and leaders need (particularly in Week 8, when teachers are finishing units, and assessing and marking student work).
We need a Federal Minister and a federal government that values and acts for the teaching profession.
We need a federal government that sees and supports all that teachers and school leaders do, rather than referring to them as duds.
The QTU is proud to be the professional and industrial voice of our profession and is proud that our members continue to do the best they can for their students, despite the many challenges that they face every day.
Kate Ruttiman
QTU General Secretary
Authorised by Kate Ruttiman, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union
21 Graham Street, Milton, QLD, Australia, 4064